49 comments:

Rain is in the forecast for the California Speedway area tomorrow (and Sat night and Sun). Hopefully it will come in and go out quickly especially with all the practices and qualifying scheduled to air.

Here is what I would like to see from Speed in today's qualifying session:

Plain and simple, I want to see the entire qualifying run of every go-or-go home car. I want to see ALL of them take the green flag, take the white flag, and take the checkered flag, as well as every second of their run in-between. Please don't just "assume" that a lesser-financed team has no chance to pull off a great lap and skip them over for a commercial. Seeing a guy like Burney Lamar or John Andretti make the race would be the feel-good moment of the whole session so please don't deprive the fans of that.

If Speed uses the TiVo style format then it should be a no-brainer to get this accomplished. If they don't then they need to front-load the commercials while the lower-tiered top 35 teams are on the track so we can see the go-or-go-homers qualify without interruption once they hit the track at the end of the session.

Also, when it comes to the go-or-go home situation I want Speed to know that there is no such thing as giving us too much information. When every go-or-go homer starts their run I want to know who is on the bubble to be bumped out of the field and who is on the bubble to get bumped into the field. In fact I would love it if the lap tracker would just track where the current qualifier is on pace to stack up among the go-or-go-homers. If they use the traditional 43 car tracker sure we could see, for example, that Michael Waltrip is on pace to end up 33rd overall, but that information would be completely useless to me. I would just respond to that graphic by asking myself: "What does that mean? Where would that put him among the go-or-go-homers? Would that lap lock him in? Would that not be good enough to make the race? Would that put him on the bubble, and if so how many cars does he still need to outrun to make the race?" Overall position should be a mere post-script to the most important information I need to know - will this run be good enough to make the field?

This is going to be a big day for Speed Channel guys taking on the task of covering their first Cup qualifying session with these new qualifying order rules in place. I really hope they step up their game and set the benchmark for the TNT and ESPN production crews to shoot for once they take over these qualifying sessions in the summer. Please don't take a lazy approach to covering these qualifying sessions Speed. The go-or-go home drama is very important and could actually make for extremely compelling television if you cover it correctly. So please act like it and be on top of your game today!

The rain should let up very soon here in SoCal, I would hate to see the Cup qualifying have to fall back on last year's points. Don't know how long it will take them to dry the track or what changes they have to make to today's schedule to make sure that qualies happen.

Since restrictor plate racing is its own animal, this should be the first race to really judge Toyota and if Dodge is a flash in the pan.

Since Robby's off road race shop is in the area, I expect him to be covered as the major "local" story, what with the Dakar being canceled and with his current Nascar penalties.

When I turned on the TV for a few minutes at 12:30 p.m. Eastern there were dryers out on the track.

When I turned on the TV at 1:50 p.m. Eastern, there were again dryers out on the track and Michael Waltrip was in front of his hauler demonstrating Darrell Waltrip's crazy golf swing for Dr Dick bergerren. (It was funny.) Typical rain delay talk with Hammond and McReynolds, and Dr. Berggeren is interviewing different drivers.

I don't know if the Nationwide cars ever got on the track. I assume the Cup guys will get to practice, but Truck qualifying is in two hours, something is going to have to give.

Not good sign for the go or go homers since it's top 35 from last year who would get in. At least California Speedway has lights.

With both the Truck Series and Nationwide Series running on the same track on the same day on competing TV networks it would be VERY interesting to see how NASCAR would handle things if the weather is this bad tomorrow.

I thought all along that it was a terrible decision to schedule a Truck / Nationwide doubleheader on Saturday and this could really be a scheduling nightmare if rain creeps in, especially if the truck race has already started when it starts to rain. Would ESPN force NASCAR to call off the rest of the truck race so the broadcast of their Nationwide race could start on time or would NASCAR do everything in their power to finish the truck race before they would consider starting the Nationwide race, no matter how much it would mess up ESPN's programming lineup? I'm sure a lot of truck teams would be awfully upset if they had to race on Monday or if their race was cut short sometime after the halfway point just because of TV politics.

In my opinion if they get the truck race started on Saturday afternoon they should finish the scheduled distance regardless of how late they would be forced to start the Nationwide race. Unfortunately I have a feeling that the Nationwide race would get treated as the "main event" and the TV contracts would force NASCAR to start the Nationwide race on time, regardless of how that would mess up the Truck race.

Not good sign for the go or go homers since it's top 35 from last year who would get in. At least California Speedway has lights.

Yeah if Cup qualifying is rained out the field will be set by the top 35 in owner's points from last year, then past champions (Busch, Jarrett, Elliott), then the current season's owner's points among the go-or-go-homers. So essentially the 43 car field for Sunday would be the same 43 guys that ran at Daytona last week, except for the fact that Bill Elliott is in the race and Kenny Wallace's #87 team isn't here.

If anything has to be cancelled today I hope Truck Series qualifying is first on the list, because there is a short field there and no one would have to go home. A lot of full-time Cup teams are going to have to go home so I hope Cup qualifying is treated as a higher priority.

Like you said though California has lights and Speed Channel should be able to stay here all night to cover the on-track action. Let's just hope Speed doesn't duplicate what they did at Charlotte last fall and pre-empt live on-track action for Trackside. While I love that show, it should be last on the priority list if anything is happening live on the track - Cup, Nationwide, or Truck Series.

If Speed dares cut off live on-track action, ESPECIALLY Cup qualifying, for a talk show again I will be irate.

I don't think the doubleheader is that bad of an idea. They had to do something to try and help the attendance situation, and by creating the doubleheader they saw it as a way to increase the value of the day's offering IMO. Plus, I can't recall rain impacting this race weekend in CA that much over the years. But, from the weather reports I've seen they should be OK tomorrow.

In addition, moving the truck race to Saturday instead of Friday night is probably a good idea -- not many would want to battle SoCal traffic on Friday at that hour to get to the race and it showed.

SPEED just had Rutledge conduct a serious interview, believe it or not. He interviewed Tony Eury Jr.

Interesting. A new role for him or are they just short handed in case this goes late into the night? He did OK, except he used the word "stuff" as in "how does stuff rank?" in Eury's satisfaction with the team so far.

Oops, I think it was Texas last fall where Speed cut off live Busch Series qualifying to air Trackside. I think Charlotte was the race where we lost Cup Happy Hour and Busch Qualifying for the rain-delayed Truck race in Mansfield (which I didn't have a problem with by the way).

To me dumping live practice or qualifying for some form of NASCAR race is acceptable. However, dumping live coverage for a NASCAR talk show is completely unacceptable so I'm really hoping this doesn't become a duplication of last fall's Texas debacle.

Please tape Trackside and air it at midnight or 1 AM after the delayed on-track action is finished.

Bob Dillner's not correct that there are new qualifying rules for rain-outs in the first 5 races of the season. As I posted earlier, it's not the 42 in owner's points as he stated. I slightly mis-spoke earlier so I want to correct that:

It's the top 35 from 2007, then race winners from 2007-2008 (Kurt Busch), then past champions (Jarett, Elliott), then 2008 owner's points (Vickers, Reutimann, Waltrip, Andretti, Nemechek). They used this same procedure at Bristol in April of 2006, so while the #10 team might be a little bit confused there is nothing new about these rules.

If there is a time crunch, I think the earlier poster's suggestion of skipping Truck qual and staging the Cup qual is a great solution. Lets hope that Nascar is as clever as the readers of the Daly Planet!

Rain situation looks okay for the races tomorrow.

But how many hours will Speed vamp before going to some pre-recorded show?

But how many hours will Speed vamp before going to some pre-recorded show?

****That's why SPEED needs some reality shows like NBS 24/7 and Beyond the Wheel again. When it used to rain for more than an hour on SPEED, FOX or FX, they would just start showing reruns of those shows or NASCAR Drivers 360 with a scroll updating the conditions at the bottom.

Now (at least last year) FOX uses COPS as its rain delay replacement - maybe we should be glad SPEED doesn't have that annoying show to use.

It would make it easier on the broadcasters too to have some alternative programs lined up.

And I hope the weather holds this weekend so I don't hear the theme from COPS tomorrow for Trucks or Sunday afternoon for Cup.

I just turned the TV back on. Dryers still on the track.... I hear Mike Joy's voice now. He said Sprint Cup Practice so I guess Nationwide practice was canceled. I bet their second practice scheduled for tonight will be cancelled.

I personally prefer the live interviews as rain-fill. When they air "Back in the Day" type episodes that's when I change the channel.

I still would like to see the TV broadcasters have a better understanding of how these rain-out rules work for setting the starting lineup. Darrell was talking about Jarrett using the past champion's provisional and then Michael getting in on last year's atemmpts (or something like that). It's top 35 from '07, then '07/'08 race winners, then all former champions, then '08 owner's points. There are no provisionals. Jarrett and Bill Elliott would BOTH get in based on being former champions. Neither is charged with using one of their 6 provisionals. Michael, Reutimann, Vickers, etc. are highest in 2008 owner's points.

If the TV guys like DW and Bob Dillner don't know the qualifying rules how are the viewers watching at home supposed to figure things out?

Forecast for Sat appears as if both Truck and Nationwide races should get in if they start on time. Nationwide race is supposed to start 4:30 PST and chance of rain isn't supposed to come in until about 7 PST.

Sunday looks worse. 90 percent chance of rain all day, better hope they revise that forecast late tomorrow and it improves. If I get ready to watch race on Sunday and it's raining, the DVR is going on and we're going to do something else. No need to wait for them to say, "we hope to get racing soon" as it pours like they did with some of the rain delays last year. when we know it isn't going to happen.

Wow, they are totally reading this board. They switched to a Back in the Day episode with a scroll at the bottom a few minutes ago.

But I'm sorry, guys, while I appreciate the effort to be proactive, I am a NASCAR reality show fan, like current reality, not a Back in the Day fan. So I won't be watching this.

I'll watch driver rain delay interviews for about an hour, so I don't mind when they show those. I'm pretty sure I read that NASCAR rain delays don't suffer hardly any in the TV ratings because fans want to listen to the drivers.

But after an hour, I'm not interested anymore. And three plus hours like today? Nope. I REALLY appreciate their effort, though, that has got to be exhausting. That's why they should have some reality shows at the ready.

Regarding the rainout qualifying rules for the beginning of the season - it is shocking broadcast professionals don't know the rules.

It only takes a two minute visit to jayski's qualifying page if you don't know. Plus, I assume the networks have access to the elusive NASCAR rule book anyway.

The same thing applies to teams/crew chiefs/drivers. It's not that difficult to figure out who is in and who is out. For a team to not know the rules (especially given the weather forecast) is shocking.

Of course, like a lot of things in sports, it seems like fans take things a lot more seriously than the athletes. I don't know if this is a good thing, but our passion certainly pays their bills.

I got home and checked to see what was on SPEED, Back in the day was going off (4:30 here). John Roberts came on for a minute to say still no track activity. They showed footage of Jeff Gordon and Robin Pemberton out touching the track surface, I assume they wanted Jeff to give his opinion, and he must have said no. They showed Jeff talking to Steve Letarte and Zippy I guess they wanted to know what he thought. They said the fog over the mountains is not allowing the track to dry even though it's not raining.

So nothing going on, they said Trackside would be on at the scheuled time no matter what, which doesn't make sense, what if they are still practicing or qualifying? It will only be 7 out there. Unless they're thinking everything is going to be off today.

And back to Back in the day. (I don't care for that show either, so switched to Jim Rome on ESPN after JR went off.)

I still hope NASCAR is dedicated to getting this Cup qualifying session in tonight, even if it takes until 11 PM or midnight PST, and if it gets that far I hope Speed sticks around to cover it. NASCAR needs to give Schrader, Skinner, Carpentier, Lamar, and Allmendinger a fair chance to make the show.

Even if it takes another 5 hours for the rain to stop there's still plenty of time to get the Cup cars 90 minutes of practice, get the Nationwide cars out there for their first practice session of the week while the Cup cars are being inspected, and then get the Cup cars qualified. I don't think anyone would be too upset about Truck qualifying being scrapped because they already had their practice yesterday and every truck entered will race tomorrow whether there's qualifying or not.

I think the issue is not that it's raining - it stopped raining a couple hours ago. The track has little leaks of water in the asphalt.

You can't dry a two mile track in an area like Fontana when the mist is in the air directly above it and it has those "weepers". As the evening goes on I don't know that it will get drier. If this had cleared up early this morning and the sun came out they would have had a better chance.

My bet is they'll shut the garage by 3 Pacific, 6 Eastern. It's unrealistic IMO for SPEED to stay on to what would be 2-3 in the morning Eastern, even if NASCAR was still conducting activity.

But I think that they're finding weepers in the asphalt shows that if it rains on Sunday for any length of time, that race won't run until Monday.

please have jeff gordon explain why he has never mentioned his late father JIMMY GORDON from back in the day in california the west coast king of the behind the wheel driver /jimmy ment a untimely death crashedcand died hard hitting the first turn wall after being TBONED at the roseville raceway track in a late modle car. I`m a dale sr. fan a dale jr. fan an jeff gordon fan but most of all MY HERRO was and in my minds eye still is jimmy gordon.thankyou jack

SPEED had brief update Same thing as of 5:30 that everyone mentioned above. No racing. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson out on the track checking it. The sky didn't look that bad, so maybe there's hope. But no sun. Probably depends on how much water is coming up in the track.

Oh Strickland you are so naive to think that qualifying would go off at midnight EASTERN.

you posted at 5PM ET 2PM Pacific that after five hours 7PM PT they would then have 90 minutes of practice followed by 90 minutes of Insurance practice making it now 10PM Pacific = 1AM Eastern then have qualifying. Sure you are not friends with Erik?

Now John Roberts is talking about these "new" rules for qualifying rain-outs in the first 5 races of a season. Again I wish these broadcasters had a grasp of these qualifying rules. There is absolutely nothing new about these rules. These exact rules were used as recently as Bristol in the 5th race of 2006!

Oh Strickland you are so naive to think that qualifying would go off at midnight EASTERN.

you posted at 5PM ET 2PM Pacific that after five hours 7PM PT they would then have 90 minutes of practice followed by 90 minutes of Insurance practice making it now 10PM Pacific = 1AM Eastern then have qualifying. Sure you are not friends with Erik?

Qualifying at California would only take around 2 hours, so 3 hours of practice plus 2 hours of qualifying starting at 7:00 PST would have pushed things right to midnight local time.

Out of fairness to the go-or-go homers I would have liked to see them do that, but at the same time I wasn't naive enough to believe that they would. Oh well.

I don't know how being sympathetic to the go-or-go homers and wanting to see them get a chance to qualify makes me like the "ESPN is great and everyone else is terrible" guy you compared me to.. but maybe that's just me.

Got a nice note from the TV compound talking about your comments and the fact that SPEED basically only had one race so far this season to review. That can only take you so far, and three hours was about it.

The drivers were in their haulers and the pickins' were slim for stories and interviews. There is a new post up about tonight's NASCAR Now, and once again we really appreciate the TV crews at the track reading The Daly Planet and offering their feedback.

Stricklinfan, you had better check that rule again. Earlier today Carpentier said he thought he was in regardless of the weather only to find out that the rainout rule for the first 5 races had been changed and it is based on current owner points which means he is out. On Go Or Go Home Steve Byrnes thought the rule was the same as last year where the top 35 in points from last year were in and John Roberts corrected him with the above version which he said they verified with Nascar.

Stricklinfan, you had better check that rule again. Earlier today Carpentier said he thought he was in regardless of the weather only to find out that the rainout rule for the first 5 races had been changed and it is based on current owner points which means he is out. On Go Or Go Home Steve Byrnes thought the rule was the same as last year where the top 35 in points from last year were in and John Roberts corrected him with the above version which he said they verified with Nascar.

John Roberts explanation said the field was baed on this year's top 42 in current owner's points, which would put Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch on the front row. The starting lineup I saw had Johnson and Gordon on the front row, which backs up my understanding of the rules.

I would recommend reading Jayski for a full explanation. This rule has not changed since at least 2006. Look at the starting lineup for the spring race at Bristol of that year. Top 35 in 2005 owner's points, then '05/'06 race winners (none), then past champions (Terry Labonte), then 2006 (not 2005) owner's points and qualifying attempts.

Patrick Carpentier and the #10 team didn't understand that the rules in races 1-5 are different from races 6-36. They probably assumed the whole field was baed on 2007 points, but they were not correct.

Again, if the starting lineup on Jayski at 7:00 eastern is accurate than I am correct that nothing has changed since 2006.

I just saw on another board that Trackside has been moved to 8:30 PM EST and will replay at 10PM the original time.

I thought the Speed Channel crew did a good job today. I didn't think they needed to stretch it to three hours without moving to a prerecorded show (what about that Road to Daytona show that was on Fox Sunday, SPEED should be able to air that?), but maybe they were hopeful or were told that racing activity would get going soon.

I personally thought they did a great job of finding people to interview. I watched for about 45 min and probably saw seven or eight interviews. It didn't seem like they wasted too much time with filler or had trouble finding people to interview.

The ironic thing about the #10 team being confused about these qualifying rules is that these same exact rules allowed them to start that 2006 race at Bristol. They were a new team and had they used entirely 2005 points they would have missed the field. If they could flash back to how these not-so-new rules saved them in 2006 maybe they would remember that there is nothing "new" about this rain-out procedure in the first 5 races of a season.

I thought the Speed guys did a good job with the rain fill coverage. Other than the on-air guys being clueless about these rainout rules that have been in place for no less than 3 years, they did as well as could have been expected.

Definitely a downer to lose 10 straight hours of live on-track action to the rain :(

JDWhere are the penalties for track operators who can't control ground water from screwing the entire architecture of qualifying?These go or go home-ers spend money they can't afford to travel across the country, yet because a millionare track owner doesn't build it correctly, these guys get punished?Come on NASCAR!!! If Robby Gordon has to cough $100k for an innocent mistake, why not a track owner?

This is NOT a new problem to this venue, and its not as though it rains every week in SoCal!!!Fine them, and pay it to the go or go home teams!!!

I have seen this at big tracks and small, it is just the nature of the beast. The ironic thing is that California Speedway really needed a good solid weekend of racing to get back on the map after the disasters of 2007.

Despite what the Prez of the speedway is saying, things are not very rosy for the future out there right now. It is certainly a shame coming off a good Daytona 500.